The Evolution of a Toy Room – Part Three

It’s been a while since I posted an update on this project, mostly because life has been really busy. We had the whole G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie change fiasco, which prompted a lot of podcast recordings, which then spiraled into preparation for JoeCon as well as preparing to move. As I write this, I am currently in the new house, however the toy room is still in its infancy.

I’m approaching Part Three with the perspective that sometimes things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes roadblocks get thrown in your way (no pun intended) but it is important to look on the bright side of things and not get upset over the little speed bumps that come your way. As we got closer and closer to the house finishing construction, it became evident that the final result of my toy room wasn’t going to match what I had pictured in my head. The real issue was how could I adapt to the changes that were coming.

Click the Read the Rest of the Story link below for the full details.

As most of you may remember, when I made my first visit to the home and looked at the frame work of my toy room, I was exceptionally excited. It was a very large, square, vacant room thirteen feet wide and fourteen feet long. It seemed huge. My mind was going crazy with all of the possibilities that this room could offer. I could put my USS Flagg on one wall, my office desk on the other, plenty of shelving, figure cabinets. Wow, this was going to be great.

Construction continued throughout the next few months, and I couldn’t help but notice that a large silver vent was in one corner of the room. I didn’t really give it much mention, just because I figured it was something that would be fed through the ceiling and would have no impact on the room at all.

Yeah, not so much.

Our house in an EnergyStar certified energy efficient home, and part of that certification involves a ventilation system through the house to circulate and vent the air in a specific way. Well, this ventilation system requires a very large cabinet-sized machine that processes the vents and allows for control of the venting system throughout the house. And yes, you guessed it, that had to go in the basement. Thankfully, the builder agreed to wall it in and build it into a closet so it wasn’t an eyesore, but it still ended up being almost a three foot square area that suddenly wasn’t usable for storage or display. A bummer, for certain, but hey, I still had a lot of real estate to work with!

Again… not so much.

A few short weeks after discovering the vent in the room, a copper pipe appeared on the opposite wall. In talking with the builder, it was revealed that the City of Lebanon (where we were moving to) required a sprinkler system in every new construction, which of course required the additional plumbing to service it. Again, a bit of a bummer, but not a deal breaker. I could still get my desk on the wall there and essentially not lose any storage or display area. But as I returned to the house throughout the next couple of weeks, it was becoming clearer and clearer that this sprinkler system was going to require a lot more than just a little pipe. In fact, two weeks before closing I walked into my basement and was greeted by this:

Yeah, the pipe was essentially taking up the entire far wall of the room, and there was still more pipe to come. Again, the builder volunteered to wall this in with closet doors, which was very cool of him, and I graciously accepted the offer, but that meant the desk could not go there (because it needed to be accessible in case service was required), and it all but eliminated any possible display I could do on that wall.

So what’s the moral of the story here? Not much, I guess, just that it always pays to keep expectations in check and to roll with the punches. The good news is, I still have a very nicely sized office and display area, and while my seven foot aircraft carrier might not have a place to go, if I get creative, I can still put together a well organized and nicely configured display space. Using modular wall-mount shelves, I have confidence that even with the reduced space I can make this work and end up with a very nice, and livable area for my collection, which is still far better than where I was a few months ago.

As I type this, I am moved into the new house, and have the desk and review station set up in my office, but there is still a long way to go. I hope you keep reading along.

Justin, an option for the “pipes” wall might be those IKEA-style floating shelves; they’re easy enough to move out of the way if you need to open the closet doors.

You sacrifice the setup for whatever’s on the shelves, but even then if you’re careful you could probably just poster tack everything down.

All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t necessarily write that area off in terms of useablity just yet.

Benjamin

Perfect for those new TMNT figures!

sba

I just moved and ran into the “Oh ****, I thought I had a lot more room” scenario too. I sacrificed most of my carded collection but managed to get all my loose figures and all my POC/30th carded up on the walls.

The rest of the room is a game room/office for my GF. My main office for working from home/putzing around online or playing xbox is what should be the dining room (And I managed to throw some figures up in this area too :D )

Our last place had a spare bedroom big enough for me to have everything displayed, but it was a crappy apartment. Traded up to a small house with a yard for our dogs and a garage for our hockey equipment.

So while I surely don’t have as much of a collection as you do, I can feel your pain on some level :)

In regards to the closet that has the pipes behind it, I really don’t see any reason to not go ahead and put stuff in front of it. I personally think of it this way. While those pipes might need some sort of maintenance in the future, it is more likely that they won’t be touched for years and years on end. I think that is worth the risk of posting up stuff in front of them for your DAILY enjoyment. At some point, you might have to move all that stuff to allow a maintenance guy in there. Meh, so what? A day or two of inconvenience and mess does not off set daily enjoyment of your room.